Heavy-duty pipes and casings may in some instances carry the flow of liquids under pressure in a situation wherein there may be no control on the flow of the liquids through the pipe. This situation may exist where control devices such as valves have been severely damaged, or the control devices may be so remote as to be inoperable. If the pipe which has been damaged is a part of a network, isolating and shutting down the flow in a particular section of pipe may be near impossible.
A typical situation where flow of liquid is not controllable is in an oil well situation wherein the valving for the well casing is completely damaged or gone and flow of crude oil is induced by natural fluid pressures originating deep in the oil bearing strata, many hundreds of feet below surface level. This situation has been found to exist as in the oil fields of Kuwait wherein the control valving and other apparatus has been completely destroyed and crude oil flows under high pressure through the well casings and is spewing into the atmosphere above ground level.